Seattle Barrelback progress

[DavO]

That looks amazing. In case you didn't know, I too am building a barrelback, and may also be on the "8-year plan". I am encouraged by your picture of your boat, but nervous about the picture of you curled into a ball doing the wiring. I am 6'5" and I do not "curl." I may need to take this into consideration and do some of the wiring at an earlier stage.

Congrats and thanks for sharing your pictures.

[Bill Edmundson]

Try to do your wiring before you do the deck.

Bill

[RobertCugini]

Bill is right, a lot can be done before the top deck.
Some people do all the mechanical before the deck.
I chose to finish the boat first, but did do some of the future work,
I drilled the shaft hole, mounted the strut, located and drilled the rudder hole.
I did prime the bottom of the deck plywood before I glued and fastened it down.
You are still going to have to get in there sometime.....

RC

[Bob Perkins]

just to be clear - I did quite a bit before curling up under my bow for an afternoon..
But there is little getting around it.. Time will be spent in cramped places

[RobertCugini]

Making mahogany plywood for the interior. Vacuum bags the veneer onto 1/8 marine plywood.
Turned out great!

[Bob Perkins]

You expert you!

[mrintense]

I used to do vacuum bagging when I worked for United Airlines working in the composites shop. When everything is right, the work turns out real nice. It could be tricky getting the vacuum bag correct d=so that there were no spots where pressure wasn't applied. But I used it to make a composite tool cabinet for my roll away tool box. Nice work on the interior paneling.

[RobertCugini]

Seats are coming along nicely, I will post a picture shortly.
What I could really use is some pictures of how people have run their
wiring. Did you notch the frames to accommodate or did you drill each frame?
I'm curious as to how everyone does it....

RC

[Bill Edmundson]

RC

I drilled holes in the frame and ran a PVC pipe through. I sanded and flared the ends of the pipe and ran my wiring through it. Use a vacuum cleaner to pull a string through and make a loop to pull the wiring.

Bill

[steves]

Robert,
While I have not done my wiring yet, I plan on running pvc through holes mid frame (on the vertical portions of the frame) to run wires fore and aft..

Does anyone have another way? Seems that 1 " should work.

watching!

Steve

[JimmY]

I drilled holes and ran the wires through some flexible tubing to avoid abrasion. Bestboatwire.com had different sizes.

[mrintense]

I drilled holes in the frame and ran a PVC pipe through. I sanded and flared the ends of the pipe and ran my wiring through it. Use a vacuum cleaner to pull a string through and make a loop to pull the wiring.
Bill

Excellent tip with the vacuum and string Bill. I too plan on using tubing for the main wiring runs. My main concern here is finding the correct adhesive to hold the PVC in place in the holes. Probably will use some sort of sealant like 4200 but not sure yet.

[Bill Edmundson]

Carl

I didn't use adhesive. The pressure from the slight curve holds it.

Bill

[hoodman]

I ran my wiring through holes in the frames but no tubing. It is all tucked up out of sight behind the carling. On a cruiser or some other situation where you don't have direct access like I do some pipe might be nice if you want to add something in the future.

[RobertCugini]

Finished installing the floor and the two bulkheads yesterday. Ready for the cockpit sides and construction of the seating. I've made and finished the seat frames, now just fitting them. I'll post some more pictures shortly.